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UNESCOs first report on ethics of climate engineering

In time for the COP28 event in Dubai, UNESCOs World Commission on the Ethics of Scientific Knowledge and Technology (COMEST) has published its first-ever report on the Ethics of Climate Engineering, or the use and adoption of new technologies to help reduce the impacts of climate change including carbon dioxide removal and solar reflectivity, along with specific guidelines and recommendations for their possible use.

This report documents the range of climate engineering technologies, which fall into two main categories. The first category is Carbon Dioxide Removal, which involves repelling carbon out of the atmosphere. Some examples include building industrial-scale carbon removal infrastructure, planting trees to absorb carbon emissions, or removing carbon dioxide from air using an electricity-based device.

The second is Solar Radiation Modification, which means reflecting sunlight back into space. Injecting aerosols into the stratosphere or painting roofs in light colors are considered as examples for this category. Swinging between these two, UNESCOs Ethics on Climate Engineering report documents the risks and opportunities of creating infrastructure and methods to solve these problems or aggravate them.

UNESCOs report on Ethics of Climate Engineering including carbon removal | image by Pixabay, via Pexels

COP28, also known as the United Nations Climate Change Conference, runs between November 30th, 2023, through December 12th, 2023, in Dubai and serves as a platform for companies and organizations to showcase how they are planning to tackle the global challenge of climate change using their programs, installations, products, and more. The entrance of UNESCOs Ethics on Climate Engineering report surfaces in time, given the climate disruption continuing at an alarming pace, as UNESCO claims, when peoples intervention and actions still fall short of reducing carbon emissions and global warming.

According to the report, climate engineering, also known as geoengineering, becomes an alternative to speed up the response in removing carbon from the atmosphere and reflecting sunlight into space. Take the City University of Hong Kongs cooling ceramic tilesas an example where they replicate the bio-whiteness of the Cyphochilus beetle in hopes of deflecting heat, reducing home air-conditioning usage, and, as an outcome, combating global warming.

Another case to make is through VTT Technical Research Centre of Finlands spin-out company Carbonaide which may fall under the same umbrella since they attempt to transform carbon dioxide into carbon-negative concrete blocks that can eventually become a carbon sink, or an object that can absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.

MITs Verdox | image by MIT | read more here

While these inventions may be beneficial long-term, UNESCOs COMEST advisory body and its first-ever report on the Ethics of Climate Engineering still express fear that these designs may cause problems rather than solve them. The report conveys its worry that trying to control the weather or reduce the impact of climate change including carbon dioxide removal and solar reflectivity using big-scale technologies might create issues. Fortunately, the first two mentioned might not be seen as industrial-scale effects, but rather micro ways that can induce greater impact.

Theres also a fear that focusing too much on these climate engineering solutions might take attention and financial support away from the inventions and technologies that have already been placed or developed to reduce emissions and adapt to climate change. These concerns may have been on the table when Vincent Callebauts twisting carbon-absorbing tower in Taipei was first introduced. The premise began when the Belgian-born, Paris-based architect was chosen in 2010 to construct a sustainable residential tower in central Taipeis Xinjin district.

The idea for the Tao Zhu Yin Yuan Tower was to build a double-helix spiraling tower with open gardens and green energy to help reduce carbon emissions. A documentary showcases how the 21-story tower can do just that, partly steering from UNESCOs report since the established tower can offer a solution to decrease carbon emissions while affirming the concerns from the perspective of building the tower and what it generated in the making.

City University of Hong Kongs cooling ceramic | image by City University of Hong Kong | read more here

The report on the Ethics of Climate Engineering also brings up the concern that people may not know enough about these new climate-shifting technologies yet, so transparency in educating them on how they work is a must. On top of that, wide-ranging and unexpected effects on the environment, human health, oceans, and more may occur caused by these technologies, so depending too much on them to solve the environmental crises could be risky.

A suggestion indicated in the UNESCO report is that people need to do more research to understand these technologies better and figure out through data gathering, verification, and comparison if theyre safe and useful. This may also mean that companies, brands, and organizations might have to start being more open to the public on the effectiveness and the process of making their carbon-removal and solar-reflecting methods.

When a team of engineers from Purdue University invented the whitest paint ever that can cool buildings down and can be applied to other objects and surfaces to achieve the same effect, they detailed the information in their study, which included the paint reflecting up to 98.1 percent of sunlight back into space. In 2022, they made changes to the formula to make it even lighter and thinner and documented it, including what went into the formula and results of the findings for public viewing.

Carbonaides carbon-negative concrete | image by Carbonaide | read more here

In this case, the viewers can freely read the information themselves, so they can be updated on whether or not the white paint can deflect heat. The engineers attempt to be transparent with their information can help the viewers form their deductions and allow them to find ways to verify the effectiveness of the formula in cooling down spaces. The same theory may go with Brilliant Planets massive algae ponds in the coastal desert of Morocco which targets to sequester carbon at the gigaton scale.

The team states that they would produce algae and convert it into stable biomass before burying it, where the carbon dioxide remains stable and locked for thousands of years. This method is thought of to remove carbon dioxide permanently from the atmosphere, and in the process, they can also deacidify vast amounts of seawater to strengthen the local coastal ecosystem.

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from carbon removal to solar reflection, UNESCO reports climate engineering risks at COP28 - Designboom